Week Five in Review: South Central

March 26, 2012

Dave Re

The Open ended exactly how it did in 2011 - a thruster/chest-to-bar pull-up ladder workout reminiscent of everyone's favorite CrossFit workout, Fran.

After five weeks and five workouts, the 2012 CrossFit Games Open has come to a close. Time to put away the chalk, rack up the weights and take stock of the tremendous work done by the athletes in the South Central Region.

Workout 12.5 ought to look familiar to the participants from the 2011 CrossFit Games Open. The Open ended exactly how it did in 2011 – a thruster/chest-to-bar pull-up ladder workout reminiscent of everyone's favorite CrossFit workout, Fran. Repeating 11.6 as 12.5 allowed Open competitors to directly compare their performance from last year to this year.

12.5 SCORES

Only two athletes in the South Central Region made it to the end of the thrusters in the round of 21. Matt Brisebois (CrossFit Flower Mound) completed 7 of 21 pull-ups to rack up 154 reps and 1st place in the region. That effort was good enough to place 17th in the world.

Seven reps behind him, Tanner Shuck (Skyline CrossFit) completed the thrusters to take 2nd place with 147 reps. Trailing Shuck by 6 reps, Bryan Diaz (Bayou City CrossFit), Jesse Haines (CrossFit Garland) and Blaine Springston (CrossFit CenTex), all tied for 3rd with 141 reps.

Megan Norris (CrossFit Lake Charles) topped the Women's Leaderboard, beating 2nd place finisher Janet Black (Atomic CrossFit) by a single rep, with 131 to Black's 130. Managing two thrusters in the round of 21, Kelley Hennigan (CrossFit Uproar) completed 128 reps to take 3rd.

Amanda Schwartz (Premier CrossFit) turned in 125 reps, cementing her third top-five finish at 4th place. Tying for 5th, Azadeh Boroumand (Get Lifted by CrossFit) and Carey Kepler (CrossFit Central) both completed 122 reps.

For the teams, Get Lifted and CrossFit Central Athletes continued their domination, once again finishing 1st and 2nd, Get Lifted with 737 reps, CrossFit Central Athletes with 718. Neither team finished an event worse than 4th. Bayou City CrossFit took 3rd with 713 reps. CrossFit Dallas Central and CrossFit Lake Charles tied for 4th with 695.

OVERALL

Despite finishing 18th in 12.5, Jason Hoggan (CrossFit Heath) remained in 1st place, a spot he's occupied since the completion of Workout 12.3. Hoggan finished the Open with 67 points, retaining a 27-point lead over Courtney Wuistinger (CrossFit Bolt), who finished with 93 points. Hoggan's finish was good enough to net him 35th place worldwide.

South Central's top finisher in the 2011 Open Drew Bignall (Mission CrossFit SA) maintained his 3rd place finish with 131 points.

Brisebois' 1st place finish in 12.5 was enough to bump him three places up the Leaderboard to finish in 4th with 136 points, just 5 points behind Bignall. Rounding out the men's top five was Scott Wells (CrossFit The Woodlands), who only finished top 20 on a single workout, totaling up 153 points.

Riding on the back of her 2nd place finish in 12.5, Black returns to the top of the Women's Individual Leaderboard, besting last week's leader, Boroumand, by a single point. Black finished with a total of 37 points, with Boroumand trailing at 38. Dropping back in points, but remaining in the top three, Candice Ruiz (CrossFit Iron Horse) tied for 3rd with Brista Mayfield (CrossFit 380) at 51 points. Completing the women's top five was Schwartz with 58 points. All five women were in the top 60 worldwide, with Black finishing 34th, Boroumand 45th, Ruiz 54th, Schwartz 56th and Mayfield 58th.

Being the last workout, 12.5 was also an athlete's last chance to make a move on the Leaderboard and qualify for the South Central Regional or, for Masters athletes, the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games.

Last week, we highlighted well-known South Central athletes who were on the bubble. Andy Lewis and Leah Shullenberger both put the hammer down and made moves to qualify for the Regional. Shullenberger jumped 13 places to finish at 49th, while Andy Lewis moved up five places to finish in 58th. Shullenberger placed 50th in the 2011 Open, but went on to take 9th place in the 2011 South Central Regional. Lewis went into the 2011 South Central Regional in 36th place, and went to the 2011 CrossFit Games. It would be hasty to discount either of these athletes as top finishers at the 2012 South Central Regional.

It appears that the top five team spots were locked in after 12.4. In fact, the top four teams finished 12.5 in their order of overall placement following 12.4. Get Lifted took top honors with an amazing 9 points, winning three of five events, and finishing 3rd in the other two.

Having tied with Get Lifted after 12.2, CrossFit Central Athletes ended the Open in 2nd place, 4 points behind the leaders with 13 points total. Bayou City CrossFit occupied 3rd with 25 points, and CrossFit Dallas Central finished in 4th with 30. Hanging back by 14 points, CrossFit Deep Ellum finished in 5th place with 44 points.

The top 30 teams move on to the Regional in San Antonio. This year is the first year that a single affiliate could field more than one official team and potentially send them to the Regional. Two affiliates achieved that goal. CrossFit Dallas Central II placed 24th securing CrossFit Dallas Central's second berth. Woodward CrossFit fielded Team De-Shirt and The OG, who finished 7th and 28th, respectively.

MASTERS

Unlike the Individuals and Teams, the Masters move straight from the Open into the Games, and several of the South Central Masters athletes we've been following will be making the trek to the Home Depot Center in July.

Cliff Lewis (CrossFit Heath) and Ken Cutrer (CrossFit EST) both will be competing in July in the Master Men's 45-49 Division. Lewis, who won the 2011 CrossFit Games Open Masters Men 45-59 Division, finished 6th in 12.5 to remain in 14th place overall. Cutrer finished in 30th for 12.5, dropping back to 17th place overall, but still remaining in the top 20.

Darlene Price (CrossFit Austin) continued to improve her position in the Masters Women 55-59 division with a 4th place 12.5 finish. That was enough to bump her up one more spot into 7th place overall, securing her return to the CrossFit Games in 2012.

Continuing the South Central Masters theme of positional improvement, Scott Patenaude (Atomic CrossFit) finished 49th in 12.5, which was enough to move him up 4 places to 37th place on the Master Men 50-54 leaderboard, but not quite enough to secure a ticket to Carson, Calif.

There you have it. Another exciting CrossFit Games Open draws to an end. For 120 individual athletes, 30 teams, and three Masters athletes, the training for their next phase of competition begins. Next stop: the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas.